


Teenaged Mothers

by Write_No_Evil



Category: Avengers (Comics), Iron Man (Comic), Iron Man (Movies), Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark cares, Tony is a mother's boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-10 01:08:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6931807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Write_No_Evil/pseuds/Write_No_Evil
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony, every so often, teaches as the university that he created for electronics. One day, when he drops by unannounced to teach a class, he finds his class disturbed by a young woman who has a baby. He is reminded of his mother and how she had been the one to nurture his love for electronics and building things. Without her, he wouldn't be the man he was today.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Teenaged Mothers

The class quietened their chattering as Tony walked in. He leant on the table at the front and watched them, letting them finish their conversations. The college kids weren't his class, he was too busy being Iron Man and an engineer to teach a class, but every so often he would pop into a class and teach the lesson. After all, the college was the property of Tony Stark and funded by him too. He grinned a little when the class fell silent and opened his mouth to speak about the topic he would be teaching them today.

Thirty minutes later and he had given them a paper with a few questions of. This was a theory lesson and so they sat behind desks, instead of a tool bench if it had been a practical lesson. He was walking through the aisles, helping anybody who needed it when a cry rang out. He looked up and saw a young girl lift the baby on her lap up to drape her, Tony assumed the baby was female from the flower crown wrapped around her head, along her side and made hushing noises into the baby's ears. She bit her lip, looking down with burning cheeks as people stopped and watched her, whispers soon snaking along the room.

"Mr Stark," the boy to Tony's left began. "Mr Stark, remove her from this lesson. Her child," he spat the word out as if it was a curse. "Is disturbing the lesson."

The girl in question peered up from soothing her baby, looking at Tony. Her hair was a few shades lighter and her eyes were blue not brown but other than that, Tony saw his mother looking back at him. The sad/scared looked in her eyes as she clutched her child closer to her, as if that could protect the small female from the words circulating the room, was the same his mother used to have. His gaze unfocused and suddenly memories he had violently pushed away came back. 

He remembered how his mother would clutch him to her side when he was a toddler, hand around the back of his head to push his face into her chest or shoulder as she practically ran from the door to the awaiting car, paparazzi screaming questions at her from all directions. He remembered the sad look on her face when he had asked her where her parents were and how come he had never met his grandparents from her side, or on his father's side either. She had looked sad as she told him that her parents had left her when she had told them she was pregnant, knowing his father was a rich billionaire and more than able to support her and her son and Howard's parents had disapproved of her, for the simple reason she came from a much lower class than Howard rather than the fact they had had a child out of wedlock. 

It had been his mother who had encouraged his love for science and technology. At first, he had gone to his father, making the rather dangerous (for a five year old) trip to his lab, but nothing he designed was good enough for his father. His mother had been the one to painstakingly carefully glue back the ripped pieces of paper of his latest design and hand it back to him. She had been the one to comfort him when his father had brushed him aside. And above all she had been the one to persuade him to continue making his brilliant ideas. "You will change the world, Tony mi vida," she had whispered passionately into his curly hair. Mi vida, my life. Tony hadn't been called that for some time.

Eventually, he had stopped sprinting to his father with a piece of paper flapping madly in the air containing some new idea that any other five year old wouldn't understand let alone think of it. Instead, his feet led him to his mother who, no matter what she had been doing prior, would always stop and pick him up, taking the piece of paper he would thrust into her face. Before she could even ask he would begin to explain it to her. She would nod at some places, often exclaiming that she "knew it!" or its function. Many times though, she didn't know, not that baby Tony minded, pointing out the names and functions of the thing if she asked and carefully explained it when she looked confused. As he had gotten older, he had become less enthusiastic, going from running to jogging to walking to finally not showing her his new ideas. At the end of the day, she would always go to his room, normally to advise him to go to sleep. He would have his headphones it, blasting the music into his ears as she walked around his room, reading the ideas on the papers that were stuck up on his walls. She would always stop and look over at him, smiling and asking what it meant and what it would do. He would get annoyed, and to his guilt and shame, would yell at her to leave them alone, to leave him alone. She always looked hurt but did as he asked of her, bidding him a good night and leaving his room. In apology, the next day he would trudge down the next day, with a paper and sit next to her at the breakfast table and tell her about his latest idea.

One time, he had shown her the blueprints to something, Tony couldn't remember what it was, and was stuffing his face as she read through the paper, often stopping to ask questions. Eventually, Tony, a teenager who was going through puberty as well as knowing his father would never really love him, had yelled out, "Why do you keep asking questions? This stuff is easy, you learn it in the first year college for God's sake! Why are you so stupid?" Immediately after, he knew he had said the wrong thing. He had felt guilty as his mother's face turned from shocked to upset. He watched the tears well up in her eyes and her sniff, taking a deep shuddering breath and looked at him, determined brown eyes that were identical to his, staring back at him. "I guess not all of us are blessed with a genius intellect." She had stood up and walked away after that, angrily wiping the few tears that fell. Tony had leant back in the chair, hands pushing his hair out of his face as he kicked himself for hurting his mother. He couldn't care less about his father but he had a soft spot for his mother. He had put his bowl into the sink and walked back to his room. He sat down in front of his computer, staring at the screen as he tried to think of what to search. He wasn't creating a new thing so they were no questions he needed answers to. He looked up, the picture of his father in his graduation cape staring down at him. His mother had pinned it there to motivate him. He did want to go to college, right?

His fingers pressed the keys on the keyboard as a thought struck him. Hacking into the college database was child's play. For his thirteenth birthday, as a gift to himself, he had hacked into the Pentagon. He paused as he thought for a second, calculating the year his mother would have graduated college. The first three colleges didn't have her name in it. He paused, leaning back as his mind whirled. His mother hadn't come from a rich family so he changed the colleges he was searching through. He then edited the search name to her maiden name. Seven more colleges later and he found her record. He leant forward, reading her record. "Dropped out in 1969." he frowned at that and stood up, intending to find his mother to ask her about that.

She was in her room, sitting in on the bed and brushing her hair, something Tony knew she did when she was upset. 

"Madre?" His father hated him speaking Spanish but his mother loved speaking in her native language, something she rarely did now.

"Sí, mi hijo?" Maria put the hairbrush down and patted the space next to her, inviting him to sit next to her. He crossed the room and sat next to her, his mother instantly tugging at his curls and smiling fondly.

"You need a haircut," she told him. He looked down at the carpet then back up at her.

"Mom, why does it say you dropped out of college?" His mother looked surprised at his sentence but it melted off and she laughed.

"Guess I was stupid to think I could keep it away from you. My genius son," her praise made him blush. She sighed and looked forwards, choosing her words. "Your father and I were drunk when we... we..."

"Had sex?"

"Anthony! Where did you learn that?" She hit him lightly on the back of his head and he laughed.

"I have friends, mom."

"Well, yes, we were drunk when we had... sex," she licked her lips, eyes cast down as she thought of what she was going to say next. "I was too drunk and scared to ask about a condom. I mean this was Howard Stark, known for sleeping around with women. And that was my first time. I didn't want to seem..... frigid so I just went along with it."

"And got pregnant. With me."

"Sí. I knew I couldn't go to college and look after a child so I dropped out. Howard gave me a room in his house and I lived there, looking after you."

"What did you study?"

"Engineering," she told him. "I loved it. Taking things apart and putting them back together, learning how things worked and improving them. It's why I know some of the components of your designs. But not all of them, since I didn't stay in school." Tony looked at his mother and studied her, her golden skin, her loving smile, her brown, intelligent eyes that never lost the fire burning in them no matter what she was facing, her brown curly hair, the same curliness that he had inherited but not the colour.

"You should have aborted me."

"Tony!" Maria gasped, looking shocked. She threw her arms around him and brought him close to her chest. "Do not ever say or think that again," she whispered harshly into his scalp. Tony pulled back. 

"But you should have! You'd have a better life without me. You would have married a man you loved, have a life that you loved, in a city that you loved," he protested. Maria cupped his cheeks, sniffing. Her eyes darted left and right as she looked into his eyes, a tear falling from her right eye. 

"But I wouldn't have a son that I loved. I love you to Pluto and back, and don't you ever doubt that. I would gladly give up my education again if it means having you. You are mi vida, mi Sol, mi Tesoro, mi Estrella brillante."

My sun, my treasure, my shining star.

 

"Mr Stark? Mr Stark? Tell her to leave. People here actually want to learn," the boy turned to the girl, Sandra Tony believed her name was, and sneered at her. "Some of us put our education before sex."

"Get out," Tony breathed. The male smiled at the girl, Tony siding with him. The girl looked up at Tony, tears in her eyes as she took a shaky breath, about to protest. Tony beat her to it. "You heard me get out." He turned to the male to his side, glaring down at the boy.

"Me?" He asked, pointing a finger at himself.

"You see me talking to anyone else?"

"B-but why?"

"'Cos I won't tolerate people putting others down or judging them. This is a safe environment and you're poisoning it. So. Get. Out." The boy opened and closed his mouth, trying to argue but Tony just glared harder at him. It was something he had picked up from his mother; Maria had the ability to make anyone shut up. The boy sniffed and packed his things up and ran out of the room. "Alright class," he clapped his hands. "Back to work." He strolled over to the girl, bending slightly to coo at the child in her arms. The girl giggled, showing off her two teeth and grabbed at his finger. Tony let her latch onto it as he looked over her mother's work.

"I-I can g-go if you want me to," she told him. Tony looked at her, noticing how the top didn't fit her and the jeans were ripped at the ends. Her shoes had holes in it and the outfit her child was wearing seemed too big for her.

"Everyone deserves an education no matter their race, gender, orientation or anything else, like having a child. And they deserve to learn in a safe place." The girl bit her lip, fighting back her tears. Tony smiled down at her. 

"But what he said was true. Maria keeps disturbing the class." Tony froze as he heard the child's name. 

"Let me take care of her whilst you work." His hands cupped Maria's armpits and lifted her up slowly, letting her mother grip onto her tighter and stop him from taking her away if she didn't want Tony to hold her. She did that but paused and looked at Tony then her worksheet before sighing and letting Tony take Maria. She reached up after Tony had settled the baby on his hip, pulling down her top and shifting Tony's arm slightly so he was holding her correctly.

"Thank you," she murmured, looking down at her table.

"You're welcome. Also well done for answering number seven. Not many can answer it." The class whipped around to look at her, some of them in amazement as they heard she had easily done the question many of them were struggling on. Tony continued to walk on, bouncing the baby occasionally and making ridiculous noises at her that he would later deny making. He let her take his blue tinted glasses off his face, pulling his head back so she wouldn't accidentally poke him in the eye.

"Hey hey, now. Don't put that in your mouth," he told her as he pulled her hand away from his mouth. She pouted but let him move her limb. He ambled around, helping people until the lesson was over. The students stood up and packed away. He yelled over the noise about the work he had sent for them, due in next Thursday and told them to hand in their worksheets. Sandra walked to where he was standing behind the desk and placed the paper on the pile. He could see she had completed the sheet and he felt impressed. He had purposefully made the last few really hard. She held out her hands and Tony handed Maria to her. 

"Maria, give him back his glasses," she told the girl. The girl sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and shook her head, holding onto the glasses tighter.

"It's fine. You could sell them. Probably worth thousands seeing as they were on my face. Could possibly clone me if you looked for cells on them." The student in front of him laughed and shifted her baby.

"I'd have to take them to the biology part of the college." She smiled shyly and Tony smiled back. Sandra looked at Maria then back at him. "Thank you. For looking after her and what you did to him. But shouldn't he come back? Doesn't he deserve an education too?"

"Not if he's going to disrespect people in the class," he told her with a tone of finality. 

"Why did you do it though? If I'm allowed to answer that," she rushed.

"My mom dropped out of college to have me. Even though she swore till she was blue in the face she didn't regret it, I felt guilty for wrecking her life. So now I make sure other teenage moms can go to college or school or uni and continue their education even with a child." Tony shrugged. "I mean, you want to support them but you need a job to do that and you're in college to gain skills to get you a job," Tony shrugged.

"Fank uuwww," Maria gurgled. 

"You're very welcome," Tony told her. He looked at Sandra. "Get going you, I think you're friends are waiting outside." Sandra turned and waved at her friends at the doorway. 

"You're real kind Mr Stark," she tells him.

"Yeah yeah. Now shoo, I have a cold unemotional reputation to keep up." Sandra laughed and turned around, walking to the door. Maria waved at him over her mother's shoulder and Tony waved back at her. When he was sure that Sandra and Maria were no longer around, he turned and strode quickly to his desk, opening his laptop. He typed something into the computer and pulled up a GoFundMe. Most college students had one of them to have enough money to pay for their tuition. Even though Stark had made it free, they still had to pay rent in whatever place they were residing in. He typed in Sandra's full name and sure enough, found her GoFundMe. He clicked on it and hesitated for a second before sending $250,000 to her. He wondered if it would be enough to tip her off that it was him so he transferred the money first to a bank in England, converting it to pounds then into her account, converting it back to dollars, so she, if she had the skills, would see it had come from a rich person in Britain. He smiled and grabbed the pile of papers, hitting the bottoms on the table to straighten it out. He smiled as he put them on top of his laptop and put that in his laptop case, swinging it over his shoulder. His mother was right, he was a loving soul no matter what he said or did.


End file.
